The Group Blog Project (spring 2019)

Beginning next week (Sunday, March 24) and continuing through the end of the term, you’ll create, maintain, and promote a group blog that tackles a local and contemporary trend, topic, or theme in a journalistic way. You’ve already started brainstorming, been been assigned a team, and written your first post, but now it’s time for greater specifics. You will:

Identify, connect with and engage a community of interest in Morgantown

Provide original content for that community through your own reporting and analysis

This is a team project requiring everyone’s strengths. The result should be a robust and engaging addition to your portfolio that will set you apart in the job market. If everyone does their own thing and there is no cohesive focus to the blog, you will do poorly.

Don’t. Just don’t.

This list gets a little bigger every semester, so read it carefully if you want to earn points for your work.

There will be no restaurant, local entertainment, advice, or graduation-themed posts unless specifically approved by Prof. Britten (they won’t be).

No “here is a place/thing” or “this event/group exists” posts. All these elements may be involved with a post, but the focus should always be on specific issues.

Posts that are essentially community calendar events or recommendations for local places to check out will receive little to no credit.

Blogs focused on personality profiles are not recommended.

Unsourced lists are frowned upon.

Avoid interview-focused posts – the best work will show off your skill with online tools and sourcing.

Do not use clichés such as “eclectic” or “something for everyone” – define a focus and an audience.

Posting recipes will bring swift retribution.

Weekly requirements:

You will be judged on the frequency and quality of your posts, comments, and other demonstrable contributions to your online publication. In addition, if your teammates report you’ve become a significant asset (or weakness), that matters as well.

Individual posts: Every person is expected to post at least once per week, and each blog is expected to have a post every weekday. Your groups must each arrange and follow a posting schedule to ensure regular updates throughout the week (Monday-Thursday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., or Monday-Friday if you have five members). If you miss your scheduled deadlines, you will get lowered (or no) credit for that post.

Weekly group budget: By noon every Saturday (beginning March 23; ending April 20), each group will email me a single budget for the current week and following week. It must include the following:

Current week: Which stories are you going to run, when (day, date & time), who will write each, and a brief description of each story and why it’s of interest to your community. Each story must also include multiple specific sources (include links, names, etc.)

Important: Saying “I’ll try to talk to someone in…” will lose you points!

Following week: Same information as above, but likely with less detail.

Longer term: Identify which big or longer-term stories you are pursuing.

Promotion: What will your group do this week to publicize your blog and connect to a larger community? (This might involve posting to social media but should also involve HOW you post – experiment with time, wording, etc.)

Weekly personal memo: By noon every Sunday (beginning March 31; ending April 28), each person will send me a weekly memo assessing your work so far and what’s to come. It must include the following:

Post: Provide details and links to your work.

Comments: You will make 5 meaningful comments per week(not all on the same day!), divided between your group blog, other class blogs, and some outside blogs of interest (which is good way of attracting like-minded bloggers to your site). Link to these in your weekly memo.

Added Value: A plain-text post adds only one level to the conversation. That’s the minimum, so doing only that will earn you the minimum grade. I expect to see you using your skills with links, images, maps, audio, wikis, and more, as well as integrating the site and its promotion into other social media like Facebook and Twitter (provide links).

Your Grade: Provide an honest grade for your work in the preceding week as a percentage score (e.g., 82%). Base your grade only on that week, and include an explanation of why you have earned the grade you propose.

Group Grade: Provide an honest grade for your group as a percentage score, and explain where the group struggled or excelled in the preceding week.

How You’re Evaluated:

As noted above, each Sunday (beginning March 31) every student will send me an e-mail memo assessing the previous week. You’ll also include short updates on your experience thus far and your blogging plans for the week ahead. I use this to grade your quality of work, so if you’ve done more than just post, tell me about it!

You’ll get a grade for each week’s worth of work, which includes your weekly post, contribution to the group memo, and any extra work you do (note this in your memo). If you like to think in terms of points, imagine that I score in roughly the following way:

30%: Connection — Quality and relevance of the link(s) you included in the post

30%: Mechanics — Grammar, spelling, punctuation and appropriate style

Bonus points! … for HTML, outside comments, etc.—beyond-the-call stuff. If you’re the editor-in-chief or have other special duties, let me know!

Because you’re each only expected to post once a week (more is allowed), I’ll expect the writing and ideas to be especially sharp – we’re not looking for long reviews. What matters more than the number of posts is the overall quality of the body of work.

First due dates:

Initial blog concept proposal (one page of overview, one page of posts from each member, and a tentative schedule) due as a single six-page packet from the group in class Tuesday, Feb. 26.

First post from each member (printed, with links and images/media indicated in brackets) due Tuesday, March 5.

A revised blog concept packet – based on the packet above and incorporating feedback from me and the group – due in class Thursday, March 7.

Your group blog’s About page with a focused mission statement must be posted by Friday, March 22. (post the URL as a comment to this post)

First budget: Email me this list of topics and dates for your first two weeks of postings (see above for explanation). It’s your first week, so this may change, but it must be thorough and complete – due noon, Saturday, March 23.

Your group’s first post: Must be posted between 10a – 4p, Monday, March 25.